


Oh No (I think I'm in love with you)

by fiach_dubh



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Multi, New Fandom, bisexual awakening, haley/leah is background, internalised homopobia, slowish burn, stuff from mods included, very loosely stardew, welcome to my bullshit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:28:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26653687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiach_dubh/pseuds/fiach_dubh
Summary: Alex is definitely straight. This thing he feels for the new farmer is jealousy. He's not into guys!Sure, Alex.Ok, look. Long term, it's about internalised homophobia and how limited just up and running away from your life is as a coping mechanism.
Relationships: Alex/Male Player (Stardew Valley), Haley/Leah (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	Oh No (I think I'm in love with you)

**Author's Note:**

> this will be updated as I write it?
> 
> I am adapting Stardew and Stardew Expanded for my own purposes. if I use game dialogue it's by accident. If you want a list of mods I recommend, say in comments and I'll post my current mods in notes.
> 
> I'm on my 6th playthrough guys.
> 
> Tags updated with chapters. I've been on the wine. Take this as it is. Haley is great and I love her. Haley /Leah is background but I'll probably write it someday.
> 
> Written by someone probably working out FAR too much about their own rural upbringing.

Small town life could be a lot of things, but one thing it always was - gossipy. Alex had been hearing about the new farmer for what felt like months before they actually moved in. By the time he actually saw the new farmer, rumour had built the guy up into something ridiculous.

Robin said he was ‘A handsome guy, if I was younger and not married -”

Lewis said “I can see a bit of his granddad in him. Think he’ll suffer the first few weeks though, with those soft city hands!”

Alex created an image of some clean-cut kind of guy, the sort of guy mothers and grandmothers always seemed to think were good-looking, and breathed a sigh of relief. Cause none of the small selection of girls in this town would be swept off their feet by that, probably. And then he regretted the new farmer wasn’t a girl, and then he didn’t think about it at all.

When he did meet the farmer - whose name was something city-ish that he couldn’t keep in his head - it was because he lost control of his gridball ball and ended it throwing it right into the mans chest.

“Oof,” he said and staggered back.

“Oh, man, Sorry - You’re the new farmer, right?”

“Right,” he said. He smiled, still rubbing his chest. “Name’s Xane. Quite a throw you got there.”

Alex was busy staring at that smile. Oh no. This wasn’t a clean-cut, easy to ignore kind of guy at all. A weird tension settled into his gut. He could easily picture the girls flocking around him. Shorter than Alex, which was something, but sharp-jawed with reddish hair and freckles all over and generally a kind of fox-ish look to him. And that smile was for sure a panty-dropper if he’d ever seen one, and he’d seen himself smiling in a mirror.

“Uh, yeah. Alex,” he said. “Future Gridball champ. Shame you weren’t a girl -”

The guy raised an eyebrow and his smile faded a bit. “Why’s that?”

“Well, you know. Just wish there were more babes in town.”

Xane’s face did a thing, but then he was bending to pick up the gridball. He was kinda graceful. Maybe he’d been a dancer or something, back in Yuzu City. He handed the ball back and Alex looked down, at his hands, the dirt under the nails.

“Thanks, man,” Alex said to those dirty nails. “Sorry for, uh. Throwing a ball at you.”

“No hard feelings. See you around.”

Yeah. Sure.

If the guy cleaned himself up a bit, Haley would go nuts for him. And then the hottest girl in Pelican Town would be snapped up. Why couldn’t Xane have stayed in the city where there were way more people? Alex didn’t like this feeling. It was new. After a bit, he decided it was jealousy.

\---

He headed over to Haley’s, just to talk. They were off right now.

She was reading a fashion magazine, legs curled just so. She really was the prettiest girl he knew. And she got him. They’d been on and off since they were about 13. He figured he’d probably marry her someday, unless he made it big first. Maybe if he did; Gridball star and fashion photographer were natural together, right?

“I met the new farmer today,” Hayley said. Alex tensed..

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, he was buying seeds, or something like that. His clothes were so ugly.”

“I mean, I guess he wears what won’t fall apart farming.”

“Yeah, but he WASN’T farming, he was shopping.”

Alex should be relieved. Instead he shifted in his seat, wanting to move. Maybe he hadn’t worked out enough.

“If he was buying seeds, maybe he was going back to plant them?”

“Ugh, maybe. But so not cute.” She folded the magazine up and leaned her head back. “Why do you care so much about what he might be doing or not?”

“You were the one who brought him up.”

“OK,” Hayley huffed. “He’s just new, is all.”

“Yeah. He is.” Alex fiddled with a piece of fabric draped over the chair. “Do you think he’s handsome?” he blurted out.

“I mean, I guess? If he dressed better and did his hair.”

He looked at her. She’d been his first kiss, and while there’d been others in the off period, she still mattered a lot to him. He knew when she was lying, and she wasn’t now.

“He seems Emily’s type,” he offered.

“You mean weird? Yeah. Maybe Abigail?”

“Leah,” Alex said. “She makes sculptures and eats berries off the bushes, she’d probably love living on a farm.”

“I quite like Leah,” Haley said, smiling. “She’s nice. She gave me a statue she made the other day. She deserves better than slaving away on some dumb farm. She’s an artist.”

Alex shrugged. He didn’t know much about art. Leah’s sculptures looked weird to him. But Haley took good pictures and if she liked them they were probably good.

“I gotta head back. You know how my grandparents like me to be there for dinner.” She waved at him, and let him go.

He had Xane on his mind the whole time, even through dinner. Xane, with his stupid girl-grabbing smile and his pointy nose, Xane who'd moved from the city to get dirt under his nails planting vegetables. Xane, who had eyes like-

He should have done more reading, so he could say what Xane's eyes were like and why they annoyed him so much.


End file.
